• Your feedback is appreciated — please leave comments on any of the posts.• To find specific rock features or look up movie titles, TV shows, actors and production people, see the "LABELS" section — the long alphabetical listing on the right side of the page, below.• To join the MAILING LIST, send me an email at iversonmovieranch@gmail.com and let me know you'd like to sign up.• I've also begun a YouTube channel for Iverson Movie Ranch clips and other movie location videos, which you can get to by clicking here.• Here's a link to Garden of the Gods, the best-known section of the Iverson Movie Ranch (featured in the movie "Stagecoach," the "Lone Ranger" TV show and hundreds of other productions).• To go right to the great Iverson cinematographers, click here.

Monday, May 27, 2013

I ran this screen shot a while back in a blog post I did about Roger Corman's 1957 movie "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent." You can see the original post by clicking here.

On a recent visit to the Iverson Movie Ranch, I spotted the site of the "Viking Women" shot in Garden of the Gods. The above photo shows what the place looks like today. As usual, it's not taken from exactly the same angle, but readers should be able to see the similarities, including the lemon-shaped background rock, with a small vertical crack toward its right end and a recessed area just to the left of the crack, the smaller rock in front of the crack (behind the Viking women) and the angular rock in front, on which the actors are standing and sitting. The tree in the above photo wasn't in place yet when the movie was filmed.

This screen shot from "Viking Women" adds a little context to the shot at the top, offering a wider view of the angular rock on which the Vikings are sitting and standing.

In another screen shot from the "Viking Women" sequence filmed in Garden of the Gods, one of the Vikings' captors whips a Viking prisoner. The whipping takes place in front of the same rock the Vikings are sitting and standing on in the screen shots above. The rock's prominent vertical crack (not to be confused with the smaller vertical crack on the background rock, mentioned above) and smaller horizontal crack can be seen here — the vertical crack running just to the right of the guy with the whip, and the horizontal crack appearing near the top of the rock, above the head of the Viking prisoner. These same cracks can be seen in the second photo in this blog post, in the lower-left corner of the photo, and appear again in the photo below.

This photo provides a look at the site of the whipping scene above as the site appears today, with the prominent vertical crack in the rock, along with the smaller, more or less horizontal crack, helping to identify the location. This same rock appears in all five photos above.

Above is a link to a DVD set on Amazon that includes "Viking Women and the Sea Serpent."

Friday, May 17, 2013

The 1941 production "Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc.," starring Ralph Byrd, is considered by many fans to be among the best serials ever made. It was the fourth and last of Republic's four Dick Tracy serials — a series that also included "Dick Tracy" (1937), "Dick Tracy Returns" (1938) and "Dick Tracy's G-Men" (1939). The last three installments all included sequences shot at Iverson.

I recently got my first look at "Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc." and ran across a particularly compelling Iverson sequence — including the above view of a dynamic rock I call Hangdog. The rock was at the center of a big shootout sequence, with one guy picking people off from on top of the rock and a bunch of other guys shooting at him from behind cars, as seen above. The shot really shows the scale of the rock, with a normal-sized man positioned atop Hangdog and dwarfed by the rock.

Included in the sequence is the above stunt jump off Hangdog — off a rock that looks to me like a shoulder — into the covered bed of a truck.

Here's what that same "shoulder" of Hangdog looks like today.

Scene from "Spy Smasher" (1942)

In a mildly amusing example of cross-promotion, the above shot from the 1942 Republic serial "Spy Smasher" includes a plug for "Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc." in the form of a set of posters on a gate.

Here's another shot of Hangdog in recent times, which I think shows the rock's two main "faces" — I tend to see it as a lion on the left and a Scooby-Doo-type dog on the right. Or another lion.

Ruh-roh! (Catch phrase often attributed to Scooby-Doo,

above, but in fact originated by Astro on "The Jetsons")

The thing that really elevates the "Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc." shootout sequence, in my opinion, is its bird's-eye views, including the above shot of a frequently filmed area known as Devil's Pass or Vultura's Pass. That's Hangdog again at top right, above the car, although the angle makes it hard to recognize. The pass itself starts to the right of the truck and continues east, behind Hangdog.

Vultura's Palace, in "Perils of Nyoka" (1942)

The same site turns up again the following year as the location of Vultura's Palace in the seminal Republic serial "Perils of Nyoka." That's a portion of Hangdog — including the shoulder, again — at the right in the above shot. You may notice the similarity between the rock directly above the palace entrance (at top center in the above shot) and the one seen in the "two-faced" shot of Hangdog a few shots up (above the Scooby-Doo cartoon), in the top-left corner. That's because it's the same rock in both shots. For more about this location, click here.

Another bird's-eye view from the "Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc." sequence, this one shows the guy posted atop Hangdog in the foreground, with an unusual angle on Bill Rock, the large rock at left center, near the car. The road where the vehicles are parked, which would pass by the front of Vultura's Palace the following year in "Perils of Nyoka," is sometimes called Vultura's Trail. Also visible here, in the background — and not in much detail — are the Devil's Doorway Cluster and Devil's Doorway Wall, in the top-left corner. The low, horizontal rock all the way in the corner is Devil's Doorway Wall.

This shot shows the same general area from a lower angle, with a portion of Bill Rock again seen at the left, the cars parked along Vultura's Trail, and Cactus Hill in the background. The flat area below Cactus Hill is where much of the Cal West Townhomes development now stands.

Reggie Lanning, at far right, operating the camera

for the 1930 movie "The Big House"

The cinematographer on "Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc." was the great Reggie Lanning, a Republic stalwart who was responsible for some of the best camera work at Iverson from the late 1930s through the 1940s — not the least being the serials "Zorro's Fighting Legion" (1939), "Jungle Girl" (1941) and "Perils of Nyoka" (1942). He also did some nice work at Iverson for the Roy Rogers movies "Cowboy and the Senorita" (1944) and "Song of Arizona" (1946). For more about Lanning's incredible track record at Iverson, please read this blog entry. And please click here for more about the forgotten legacy of the great cinematographers of the B-movie era.

In the above promo still for the 1930 movie "The Big House," Lanning — who was uncredited on the production — works alongside cinematographer Harold Wenstrom shooting the film's star, Chester Morris. It's a rare glimpse of Lanning at work.

If you're interested in getting your own copy of "Dick Tracy vs.
Crime, Inc." on DVD, you should be able to buy it off Amazon by clicking
on the image above.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Ray Harryhausen was the king of the Hollywood special effects guys in the pre-CGI days, known for the classics "Mighty Joe Young" (1949), "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958) and "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963), among many other movies from the 1940s into the 1980s. His stop-motion monsters were his calling card — he called his process "Dynamation" — and as it turns out, at least one of those monsters went on a rampage at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif.

It all went down in the 1957 sci-fi movie "20 Million Miles to Earth," which filmed at Iverson in late 1956.

In the monster's first appearance at Iverson, it surfaces in the Upper Gorge. The two rocks behind it can still be found at the site today: Crown Rock on the left and the Devil's Doorway Wall on the right.

Crown Rock appears again in this shot, where the hapless authorities are setting up to try to kill the monster with a flamethrower. That's Crown Rock filling up the bulk of the left half of the screen. You can also catch a glimpse of Minisub in the background, toward the right, directly above the guy in the suit. Both Crown and Minisub can still be found at Iverson. Well, technically, only about half of Crown Rock survived the Cal West Townhomes development that now fills the site — the same half seen here. The original rock extends farther to the left, as noted below.

Here's what's left of Crown Rock, which is now sort of a decoration among the condos. The rest of it was hacked away to make way for the driveway. You may notice the similarity in the shape of this rock and the one in the photo above it. The round part of the rock in the black-and-white shot, framing the guy with the flamethrower, is now concealed behind the foliage at the right of the above shot.

Detouring momentarily from the monster movie, this is what a hacked-up famous movie rock looks like. It's another view of Crown Rock in recent times, from what might be called the front of the rock. This view shows the pockmarks left when a portion of the rock was hacked away to make it fit the plan for the condo development. The rock is adjacent to one of the development's main driveways. (You may want to click on the photo to enlarge it for a better look at its hacked-up face.)

Sadly, they destroyed Crown's "twin," which was at least as interesting as the part that survived. Above is a shot of the two Crown Rock twins as they appeared in 1957 in the TV show "Have Gun, Will Travel" — each with its own Indian warrior on top. The shot is from the episode "The Yuma Treasure," which first aired Dec. 14, 1957. The twin on the right is the piece of the rock that remains today.

Back to the rampaging monster. This shot was probably one of the things the creature wound up rampaging about. The flamethrower scene takes place on the plateau at the top of Iverson's Upper Gorge, with the rock feature known as The Wall (not to be confused with the Devil's Doorway Wall) seen at the right, and Elders Peak in the background, to the right of the monster. The plateau in the foreground is now filled with condos, and The Wall was torn down to make room for them.

Another shot from the flamethrower showdown has the monster again positioned with its back to the Devil's Doorway Wall, center. At the left is Crown Rock, and the tall rock toward the right is part of the Devil's Doorway Cluster. In the background is Cactus Hill. All of these features remain in place today.

Fleeing the flamethrower, the monster emerges from the back side of Zorro's Cave, at the right. The tall rock toward the left is another familiar Iverson feature, which I call Heroes Tower because of its appearance in the NBC TV series "Heroes."

Here's a look at some of those same rocks in the summer of 2008 — including Heroes Tower and the rocks behind Zorro's Cave. This shot was taken when "Heroes" was being taped at the site, and the show's producers had added paintings to a number of the rocks.

Another pic from summer 2008 offers a better look at some of the rock paintings used in "Heroes," including the one on Heroes Tower at top right. The paint was all cleaned up as soon as the shoot was done, although I did find a couple of traces that hung around for a short time on some other rocks. Click here to see more about the "Heroes" shoot.

The pursuit of the monster in "20 Million Miles to Earth" eventually leads to another part of the Iverson Movie Ranch, where the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village now stands. In this shot a helicopter closes in as the monster is enjoying a snack in the approximate spot where the mobile home park's swimming pool is now located. Flanking the chopper are End Rock, on the left, and Corner Rock, just to the right of the helicopter, with Smooth Hill in the background.

End Rock as it appears today, near the foreground (behind the smaller rock in front),

with Corner Rock in the shadows behind the lamp post at left

These days, End Rock is thought to be part of a planter setting at the mobile home park, while Corner Rock was partially lopped off to make way for a road. In the recent photo above, the rock that now passes for End Rock is the larger of the two rocks in the foreground, while Corner Rock is in the shadows at the left, behind a low brick wall. The positions are reversed because this shot is taken from the north, while the shot of the monster above is taken from the south. I've never been fully convinced that this flat rock in the planter is in fact End Rock, something I've talked about a little in a previous blog entry. It has generally been "accepted" among researchers that it's End Rock, but I think everyone's at least a little suspicious.

This angle from "20 Million Miles to Earth" more closely approximates the recent shot, with Corner Rock on the left and End Rock on the right. The dirt road seen here follows the same path as the current asphalt road bordered by the low brick wall in the recent shot above, which leads to the mobile home seen above End Rock in the recent shot. The "bump" on the right side of Corner Rock, which protrudes over the dirt road, has been removed to allow for a wider road today.

Apartment complex atop the former Smooth Hill

Even Smooth Hill, an important landmark in hundreds of old movies and TV shows shot at Iverson, was destroyed. The top of the hill was lopped off when the 118 Freeway came through in the 1960s, and a large apartment complex now occupies the site, along with some condos. In the above shot looking northwest toward the two main buildings of the apartment complex, the freeway can be seen cutting through the center of the shot above Topanga Canyon Boulevard, with a glimpse of the condos at far left.

The monster's Iverson rampage ends when it is captured by dropping a steel net on it, with the capture taking place in what's now the mobile home park. However, as anyone who knows monster movies will tell you, we can expect it to come roaring back to life — and it does. For reasons that I presume are explained in the movie, the monster's next rampage takes place in the streets of Rome. I have heard that one reason the production went to Italy was because Ray Harryhausen wanted to vacation there.

One of the highlights of "20 Million Miles to Earth" is a brutal fight between the monster and a Dynamation elephant, with Harryhausen's fluid motion work seen in all its glory. (The still shots don't do it justice.) This sequence, along with the remainder of the movie, is set in Rome and no longer involves Iverson. But the Rome rampage is too cool not to post a bunch of screen shots of it anyway.

In contrast to the frustratingly brief appearances by star monsters in many 1950s monster movies, viewers get a "lot of monster" in this one.

The creature goes on a tour of Rome for a while, and kind of trashes the place. In some instances, as with the shot above, the modeling is pretty obvious.

In other shots the sets look real, as when things come to a head with a climactic stand atop the Roman Colosseum.

Ultimately, the odds are stacked against the monster ...

... which takes some hard hits from the gathered artillery ...

... and winds up in ruins, like much of the rest of Rome. Oh yeah: Spoiler alert. I mean ... but is this really the end of the monster?

The man behind the monster. Born in Los Angeles, Ray Harryhausen moved to London in 1960 and remained active in the movies through "Clash of the Titans" in 1981. Here he's seen with a model of one of his trademark skeleton warriors — a tribute to the classic battle scene in "Jason and the Argonauts" that featured seven of the hard-to-kill swordsmen. Harryhausen, one of the true legends of the movies, died today, May 7, 2013, at 92.

Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas

I'm searching for information on the great cinematographers of the B-movie era

I want to honor the legacy of the cinematographers and other production people who worked in relative obscurity during the heyday of the B-Western and the Saturday matinee serial. If you have information about any DPs, directors, production managers or other behind-the-scenes people involved in making B-movies, serials or early TV shows from the silent era through the 1960s — especially those involved in location work and anyone who may have worked at the Iverson Movie Ranch — I would love to hear from you.

With the exception of the most high-profile figures from this period — movie stars and prominent directors, mainly — I have been able to dig up precious little information on the talented people who shaped our movie history and our culture through low-budget, independent productions. I think it would be tragic to allow their legacies to fade from memory while there are still people around — a few, anyway — who can tell their stories.

I would especially like to hear from the survivors — spouses, friends, co-workers, children, grandchildren and beyond — of those who played a role in making movies at Iverson, as well as anyone who is around who has his or her own memories of Iverson.

I have a special interest in cinematographers — the men who aimed their cameras at Iverson's dramatic rock formations, among other things, and thereby recorded the ranch's legacy for posterity. I hope to hear from anyone who might be able to help flesh out their biographical information and gain insights into what made them tick.

Here are some of the cinematographers I would like to find out more about:

Want to see more Iverson Movie Ranch photos? Click on the picture of Hawk Rock, below, to go to the Iverson Movie Ranch photo page on Flickr.

What's that photo at the top of the page?

The black-and-white photo used as the page header is a screen shot from "Fury at Showdown," a 1957 feature from Robert Goldstein Productions starring John Derek, John Smith and Carolyn Craig. The film's director is Gerd Oswald, with cinematography by Oscar winner Joseph LaShelle.

The gargoyle-like figure that looms above the rider is Wrench Rock, a favorite among fans of the Iverson Movie Ranch. In the early days of my Iverson research I called it Bobby, and that name still appears in some places. The rock was traditionally called Indian Head, which unfortunately is a name that has been given to a number of rocks at Iverson.

Wrench Rock is located on what was the Upper Iverson, in the heavily filmed South Rim area, and can still be seen there today, although its "best side" — the view seen at the top of this page — is now blocked by a tree.

The rock is also sometimes called Upper Indian Head to distinguish it from the well-known Indian Head located on the Lower Iverson, in Garden of the Gods.